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In a world before computers and virtual instruments and long before MIDI,
electronic music was made with analog modular synthesizers, with real
3-dimensional knobs, faders, and switches. Sounds were constructed by
routing electricity from module to module with patch cords and turning
potentiometers to sculpt sound and music real time. This was an awesomely
creative period in the history of music. Composers/performers, like Morton
Subotnick and The Electronic Art Ensemble, stood before their vast arrays
of analog synths and towering sound systems performing otherworldly
atmospheres of sound that to this this day are unmatched in their expression
and primal audio pyrotechnics. These amazing synths were not controlled with
your typical B&W keyboards that permeate today.s bleak controller landscape.
Rather, they were triggered by .Touch Activated Voltage Sources. and
.Multiple Arbitrary Function Generators.. It was an exciting time.
But all things must pass...

The next wave in electronic music history was the era of presets and MIDI
and suddenly everyone stopped turning knobs! Instead of making connections
we started making selections and the fundamentals of synthesis and signal
flow became a lost art.

Now analog synths are back and these new instruments are excellent tools to
teach the art and science of synthesis. We at MPV are proud to bring back
synthesizer wizard and performer , Richard Lainhart, to show us just how
these modular synths work. In his tutorial, Analog Synthesis in a Digital
World, Richard demonstrates his Buchla Series 200e and takes us on
a educational excursion to through the world of basic synthesis explaining
the fundamentals of waveforms, signal flow, additive and subtractive
techniques and how they apply to today.s software synthesizers. So get out
your virtual patch chords and plug in to .Analog Synthesis in a Digital World.